Stanley Spencer: Journey to Burghclere [Paperback]

The Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere in Hampshire is one of the great monuments inspired by the Great War. Commissioned in memory of Lt Henry Sandham, who died in 1919 as a result of illness contracted during active service, it gave Spencer an architectural scheme large enough to house his images of the war. This excellent account follows the artist from early days in Cookham, through the horrors of the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol to the battlefields of Macedonia ('Up the line again, the sap of life has returned. I would far rather be out in the infantry than be working as an orderly in a hospital in England'), finally concentrating on his five years at Burghclere. Spencer often taxed his patrons' and the architect's patience (an interesting comparison is made with the Royal Artillery memorial, a true dialogue between sculptor and architect which shows how little contribution Pearson was allowed to make to the chapel) but the result is a vision quite unique in these islands. Spencer frequently referred to it in musical terms, Gough describes it as designed egalitarianism'. Either makes sense, and this remarkably well researched and documented book allows both interpretations.

SD

Galleries Magazine, October 2006

THE INTERIOR OF SANDHAM MEMORIAL CHAPEL at Burghclere, Hampshire, has been described as one of the unsung glories of European art.

Both Gough and Spencer display considerable talent as writers as well as artists. Between the narrative and the frequent excerpts from Spencer's own extensive diaries, Journey to Burghclere is suffused with the minute, perfectly weighted observations that help make Spencer's visual work so arresting. For that reason alone it is a journey worth retracing.

Its series of panels explores redemption and peace amidst the menial and horrific realities of the Great War. Now a new book, Stanley Spencer: Journey to Burghclere by Paul Gough, Dean of Bristol School of Art (UWE), provides an absorbing account of how this extraordinary visualisation came about.

The chapel was commissioned as a memorial to Lieutenant Harry Willoughby Sandham. Like Spencer, he had spent the final years of the war in Macedonia, although in his case his skills as a motor engineer kept him there for months after Armistice Day.

Returning to England in 1919 after recurrent bouts of malaria, Sandham was not able to recover properly before the disease landed a critical blow. His spleen ruptured, and his sister Mary Behrend made the unfortunate error of giving him brandy to help. He died before the doctor arrived.

At a time of so many public memorials, this private one brought Spencer the opportunity to realise his large-scale ambitions as a muralist. He had to wait though - the `holy box' was not completed until 1927 - and he would spend a further five years painting the inside, under patronage of the Behrends.

The interior walls of the chapel at Burghclere draw together the major components of Spencer's wartime service: his role as an orderly at the Beaufort Hospital and his experiences on what Gough describes as the "dusty, malignant" Macedonian front.

Both these major episodes in Spencer's twenties are explored in detail in the book. Working life as an orderly at the Beaufort, previously the Bristol Lunatic Asylum, is vividly recounted: there are Spencer's flashes of religious imagery and imaginative fervour, such as in his first impression of the gate and its keeper quoted above. There is also the pride he took in his work, and his precious moments of solitude in the linen cupboards between wards, where he would attempt to recapture the feeling of being in his beloved home village of Cookham. For Gough, these respites connect to Spencer's acute sensibility for small, enclosed spaces, "perhaps unique amongst British artists".

His military service in a `forgotten' part of the war, entrenched against German-backed Bulgars in Macedonia, is equally illuminating. For instance, Spencer's observations on the liminal, mesmerising qualities of no-man's land are particularly striking.

...the day by day in the wasteland, the sudden violences and long stillnesses, the sharp contours and uniformed voids of the mysterious existence profoundly affected the imaginations of those who suffered it. It was a place of enchantment.

Both Gough and Spencer display considerable talent as writers as well as artists. Between the narrative and the frequent excerpts from Spencer's own extensive diaries, Journey to Burghclere is suffused with the minute, perfectly weighted observations that help make Spencer's visual work so arresting. For that reason alone it is a journey worth retracing.

I haven't been to Burghclere yet, but when I do go, this book will be with me. This is an insightful book, both in terms of Spencer's early development as an artist and his experiences as a medical orderly. It is an engaging read, well illustrated and Spencer's paintings are particularly well described - aided by the fact that the author himself is a painter. There is an empathy with the subject and a considered approach to the historical context in which Spencer worked. As someone more familiar with the history of the Western Front, I found the descriptions of Spencer's time in Macedonia particularly interesting. The book charts Spencer's development as an artist and the changing nature of conflict as the war progressed. Before reading this book, I knew a little of Spencer and his work. Now I feel I have had an insight into a unique artistic mind, aided by the level of intimate detail which the book offers. Stylistically, it's also a good read!